Bill Johnson - How to Hear God's Voice and Recognize His Presence
You learn to see, to feel, and to perceive. I don’t consider myself a very good seer at all; I hear better than I see, but I’m learning. Just do whatever you need to do to help me see. That’s the journey we’re on, and I want to invite you into another level of hearing and seeing because he’s invited us to do what the Father is doing and to say what the Father is saying. Where are you from? Canada? All right. Where else? Czech Republic, Taiwan, Sweden, England, Wales, China, Taiwan, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark. Welcome, Australia! Come on, Romania, beautiful Israel! All right, well, we’re glad all of you are here! All of our international guests, stand up. The rest of you, lay hands on them. Pray for them. I want you to pray that they get so whacked that they impact their entire nation.
Honestly, pray that they would go home with more than they thought possible. Pray great prayers of faith that God would impart to them, that He would work out circumstances in their favor, that there would be a spirit of breakthrough resting upon them, and that they would carry His presence and power into a whole new dimension. If you can’t reach someone, at least extend your faith, extend your hands, and just pray. Pray that the Lord would so honor and bless these who have come so far. Just declare the word of the Lord over them as you pray. Take just a moment longer. I know we’ve got guests from around the world watching, and we honor and bless you. We pray the same thing for you, that it would be as though you were here in the house receiving from our family as they pray for you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.
Now, I want you to do this: pray for the church they’re part of that there would be a mighty outpouring of the Spirit. If they’re not part of one, pray that God would lead them to a place that would become home, that their local church would truly be a revival center in their city. We declare that in Jesus' mighty name. Thank you, Lord. Amen. All right, you did good! Give Mah a call; do something nice and be seated.
Eric’s been reading testimonies lately. It’s been fascinating to watch as he’s read testimonies of Asperger’s, autism, dyspraxia, and different brain disorders and dysfunctions that have been healed. Every time he does, we’ll have people in the room who have a relative or friend with that condition stand and pray. We give you permission in that moment to use your phone to text that family member or friend and let them know that we prayed specifically for them. Then let us know within about 24 hours if there was any change. We have seen so many dramatic changes—absolute miracles in the area of autism. I’ve only seen one that was instantly healed; generally, it’s over a period of at least a few hours, if not even a couple of days. But absolute, complete, miraculous turnaround—and we celebrate every one of those. The stories are just getting longer and longer every time he does this. In any place in the world, there are incredible reports of miracles.
Well, two weeks ago yesterday, I was at an event called The Sin, which is one of the more…How many of you were there? Put your hands up high! Yes, come on! How many of you watched on Bethel TV? We had, I guess, over 200,000 people watching on Bethel TV, which is extraordinary. Toward the end of the evening, I was backstage when one of the gentlemen involved with the Circuit Riders Ministry, Andy Bird and his entire team, asked if I would pray for one of their staff members who has had Lyme disease for 38 years. She has been mostly bedridden for the last 10 years—just horribly afflicted—so they asked if I would pray for her. A group of us gathered around, and we began to pray. We prayed for about 10 minutes or so. We just watched the Holy Spirit literally flush it out of her system, and within about 10 minutes, she was completely healed! Glory to God for that! They even sent a video of her running around her pool, five days after the miracle. Just imagine their adult children being able to witness the miracle themselves. Imagine being in your late 20s or early 30s and never having seen your mom healthy in her life, and then all of a sudden, all of that changes. It now gives you permission as a family to live in a way you’ve never lived before. We’ve just been beyond ourselves with joy for them.
After—I don’t remember now if it was last Sunday or the Sunday before; no, it had to be last Sunday—sorry, I wasn’t here the Sunday before. I mentioned that Lyme disease was healed, and we prayed. I don’t remember if we prayed for people in the room; I think we did. A friend of mine from Nashville, Rebecca Williams, was here, and she sent me this text after she got home. She wrote, «My friend just texted me this morning. She was watching Bethel TV last Sunday night when you got the word about God healing Lyme disease.» That’s what it was. I gave the testimony, and the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Anytime you hear a testimony, there is a covenant from God to duplicate the miracle. It’s important for us to adjust our thinking to step in line with what God is doing.
When I got the word about healing Lyme disease, Rebecca was in the room. She texted her friend saying she would stand in for her and her two daughters, both ages 8 and 11, who have debilitating Lyme disease. She herself almost died from the disease, and her girls had been bedridden for days, unable to move. She was watching on TV when Rebecca stood up in proxy for them. I recorded the prayers of everyone around me for her and her two daughters. She said her 11-year-old daughter started crying because she felt God saw her. When she heard the prayers, she started to move her hands, and the pain hurt less and less every time she moved. By the end of the service, the pain in both little girls was completely gone! The next morning, they were doing jumping jacks with their mother, and that gal, Sarah, texted Rebecca that morning, announcing that her girls were fully recovered. They’re going to send us a video clip of their healing.
I read this to you because it’s good news, but also because there’s somebody watching online on Bethel TV that needs this miracle. We’re just going to open up the floodgates right now. If you have Lyme disease or have a relative or close friend with that disease, stand right now, because we’re going to pray over you. I believe the Lord is going to release the power of the testimony. Literally, two young girls, ages 8 and 11, were healed simply because the testimony was declared, and they stood in line with that decree. As soon as we’re done, I want to give you a moment. Text them now. How many of you have the disease in the room? Let me see, because I want to make sure we… Okay, those with their hands up, I want you, those around them, please notice that these need specific attention. All right, somebody way in the back as well. Then the rest are standing for friends and family members, and we’re going to pray. I believe we’re going to see this spirit of infirmity broken off of people’s lives. It is an illegal assault on government property; it is vandalism, and it is no trespassing. They’re trespassing, and so we’re going to pray. How many of you are ready to join your faith with those standing that a miracle be released? We have seen now just people standing in proxy; this is a new level for us in the last, I would say, year of God releasing that miracle anointing through somebody standing in proxy. We’re going to do that right now.
So, all of you who are standing, if you’re sitting by somebody, please stand and get the name of the person you’re standing in for. Join your faith, and I want you to rebuke those of you that are praying for those with Lyme disease in the room. Pray that the presence of God flushes that out of their system completely. It’s like a flood; just pray that the flood waters carry everything out. It’s a strange picture, but I believe it’s a God picture. Thank you, Lord. Just take a moment to give thanks for the testimonies we are about to hear. Lord, we give you thanks! We honor you that your word is true. Your word is true. Amen.
Go ahead and find your places. Those of you who stood in for someone else, grab your phone, send them a text, and let them know that we specifically prayed for them. We’ve had four people healed in the last 15 days of Lyme disease. We had another one yesterday, someone who came a great distance and found out we were having our in-house family time together, and some of our healing team prayed for them. After about an hour, all symptoms, everything was gone. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for that! We thank You. We thank You. The key for everything that Jesus did was that He did what He saw His Father do, living aware of a heavenly plan, a heavenly presence, and a heavenly voice. Jesus said what He heard His Father say, did what He saw His Father do. The point was, is He chose to live as a man surrendered to God. Even though He is the Eternal Son of God, He never stopped being God. He didn’t live from that place, the Scripture says. He didn’t count equality with God a thing to be grasped. He didn’t grab hold of what was available for Him; He chose to live instead as a man surrendered.
We see examples through His life that have never been repeated, or rarely repeated, throughout any time in history, where everyone He prayed for was healed— that’s unique right there! Everyone He ministered to was always left in a place where they could make a decision that would affect eternity; it was that significant. He knew how much to say to one person. For example, somebody would come and say, «What is truth?» He would say, «What is it to you?» It was a great time to preach His great sermon, but He chose not to because He knew when to speak and when not to. A person says, «What is truth?» Jesus says, «What is it to you? '» He quotes a few commands, and Jesus says, «Do that and you’ll be fine.» What was He doing? Turning His attention back to what He already knew but wasn’t living. He didn’t need new information; He needed to return to what He knew. Jesus discerned that by knowing the voice of the Father.
Every one of us in this room is designed by God to recognize the presence of God and the voice of God. I consider them two different manifestations of the same thing: the voice and the presence. I hear people say, «I don’t hear what God is saying, but I feel His peace.» That’s what He’s saying. His presence speaks, but He doesn’t always speak here; He speaks here. What we have to learn to do is adjust and accommodate that presence that comes to bring peace, because it’s in that presence that we find the heart for what we need and the courage to do it.
I’ve told you before that I get jealous of Jesus when I see what He did—His tenderness towards the Father. He knew in a situation; a woman comes to Him and says, «Would you heal my daughter?» She’s a Syrophoenician woman. He was sent by the Father to the Jew first, not the Gentile. He had already instructed His disciples that our assignment is to the Jew first. There’s a long biblical reason for that; I’m not going to go into it now. It wasn’t Jesus rejecting the Gentile; it was timing. This Syrophoenician woman is before Jesus and says, «Would you please heal my daughter?» He says, «I can’t give the children’s bread to dogs.» Churches have split over less than that! To refer to her as a dog is not the kindest thing ever spoken. But please don’t be offended by that because Jesus will often put a barrier of offense between you and the miracle you want, because the strength needed to overcome the offense is the strength necessary to maintain the miracle. The strength needed to overcome the offense is the actual strength that is needed to hold on to the miracle and not lose it in the mercy of God. It’s not because He hates, despises, or punishes; none of that is true. He knows what’s needed, and He’s willing to take that position and offend our minds. As Paul Cain, I think, quoted, «God will offend your mind to reveal your heart.» He’s done that to most of us; I know He’s done it to me more times than I care to talk about.
So He says to the woman, «I can’t give the children’s bread to dogs,» and the woman says, «But even the dogs eat the crumbs from the table that the children drop.» Jesus saw faith in her. She can’t get faith anywhere but from the Father. So how does He know what the Father is doing? He saw faith in her. You need to see this because sometimes we’re waiting for an external voice, an external impression, instead of seeing something on the countenance of the person you’re talking to. I just read a story either this morning or last night about Dr. Charles Price. He was an extraordinary man; he was actually a pastor down in Loi, California, and he was a great orator. He would preach against miracles and all the stuff going on; he would preach against Amy Simple McPherson, and he once snuck into one of her meetings because he wanted to get more information to expose her as a fraud. Someone recognized him—I don’t know if he had one of those big rubber noses or mustaches and glasses, but he was trying to hide in the back, and somebody recognized him, came, and told her. She stood up and said, «We are so honored today! I understand that Dr. Charles Price is in the room.» Here’s this guy who preaches against her, and she just wants to celebrate him. He’s just embarrassed to tears, and someone spots him. They lead him up, and she puts him up on the platform. He ends up getting whacked by God, laid out as I understand under the piano forever. He gets up—this mighty man of faith, perhaps the greatest… if you can find the book, it’s an old classic called «The Real Faith.» I think the new one they retitled it, but that’s the original name: «The Real Faith.» It’s probably the greatest book about faith you’ll ever read.
But anyway, Dr. Charles Price was doing a healing crusade, and the miracles that would happen were just absolutely extraordinary, astounding. If you’ve ever been in these meetings, you pour out your life and then end up praying for a couple of hours. There’s just an exhaustion that if you’ve not done it, you don’t comprehend. He’s at that point when a woman comes up to him and says, «A relative, a friend, is dying in the hospital. Could he come and pray for her?» Typically, that’s not something you can do, to be honest with you. There’s not a slot in the day. Because the days are usually filled with everything for this crusade or conference or whatever. This story says he stopped for a moment and he said, «Yes, I’ll come.» When he came, he told them, «She will be healed. We’re not going just to pray; we’re going because she will be healed.» Then he said, «Why?» He said, «I’ve come to recognize that when I stop for a moment, the Spirit of God, His presence, His power came upon me, and I knew that was the witness. He’s done that before, and that was the witness to me: I am being sent because she will be healed.» And she was.
The point is, you have to know how He manifests to you. You have to know William Branham had a certain thing that would happen to him; Oral Roberts, I forget what hand it was—I think it was his right hand—demonized people wouldn’t come to the right side of his body because if they touched the right hand, the demons would manifest. Why? I don’t know; you just work with Him. He’s the mysterious one. You don’t try to control Him; you cooperate. That’s just how God used him.
So the point really is that everyone in this room was designed by God to recognize His voice. You were designed by God to recognize His presence. Everything about you… Sometimes I can physically feel when He’s come upon me, but there are other times when I can recognize His presence because of inspired thought. I was in a meeting a couple of weeks ago, and during the worship, I was getting so much download. I haven’t been in that zone of revelation knowledge at that level in a long time, and it happened during worship. I was stunned; I was overwhelmed by His presence. It was because of inspired thought. I’m just trying to mention a few of the kinds of ways that He shows up to let us know that He is present and that He is about to do something.
For a number of years, I would feel this fire. It’s feeling strange now; I’m starting to feel a little self-conscious. So, I have something else I’m going to—I was going to teach right now. I don’t know what I’m going to do except feel self-conscious and just tell you some of my personal journey. I think that’ll have to be good enough for tonight. I would have this thing happen where I would feel this fire resting on my right shoulder. I wouldn’t tell anybody about it. That’s not true; I told my personal staff, I had three or four people that worked for me. I would be sitting there in a seat, and I’d say, «Put your hand right here,» and they would, and it would just be hot as could be. Because this presence— in fact, this presence is coming right now. This presence would come and rest there, and I thought this is weird. I was in a banquet once, and I was sitting at a front table, and I kept moving my face into the fire because I was trying to—I’m sorry, I was just trying to figure this out, you know? Because my right ear’s burning, my shoulder is burning. I put my face into it; then I put it back. After the banquet was over, somebody at the table behind me said, «Do you have problems with your neck? We’re happy to pray for you.» I started laughing! No, I’m sorry, this one’s rough to explain, but it helped me so much. Bob Jones explained to me what that is. He said, «That’s the dove that remains.» If you remember in Jesus’s baptism, it says when that Spirit begins to manifest in that way, it’s because He’s positioning you with confidence in your authority to do something.
So what do you do when you hear a veteran talk to you in that way? You make a mental note. I’m not going to try to imagine it because I don’t want to try to make something up, but I do want to cooperate if He speaks in a certain way. He speaks in riddles often. I’ve had great fun trying to decipher and interpret the riddles of God. It’s been just fascinating to me how He speaks. Sometimes it’s very clear. I’ve had twice He’s woken me up with His voice. There was a season where I was praying a lot about writing. I didn’t have the education to write; I didn’t have the training, but I had a desire in my heart. At that time, I didn’t have the confidence to even try unless He told me He was in it. I would approach it differently today, but at that time, that was my understanding. I remember praying for an extended period of time. «God, do you want me to write? It’s in my heart to write.» One night in the middle of the night, He spoke, and He woke me up with His voice, and I’ll tell you exactly what He said: «Isaiah 30:8.» That was it. I woke up, and I thought that was clear. I waited, and nothing else came. When I opened my Bible to Isaiah 30:8, it says, «Now go and write.» No more excuses!
No more excuses! But He speaks that way! And I had written my first book. I got buried into conference life and what’s going on here—here, thrilled to pieces with what God’s doing—but just a crazy schedule. I got up to where I was traveling 185 days a year, plus pastoring and the school and all the stuff we do. I checked into a… I took a team from here to Texas. You’re all right with just rambling, right? All right, see, because this is weird. So I check into a hotel room in Texas. I’ve got maybe 15-20 students with me, and I check into the hotel room. The gal behind the counter says, «Your room is 308.» I thought, «Yep, that’s a good caliber of a rifle. My most accurate rifle is a .308.» For those of you into this, 90% of you won’t even know the language I’m talking about, but the 10% of you will be blessed. That gun will shoot under quarter-inch groups at 100 yards—three shots, center to center, under a quarter inch. That is accurate! Glory to Jesus!
So when she gave me room 308, I thought, «Yep, it’s a good caliber of a rifle.» I just laughed it off, went to my room, went to the next city. 308, I went, «This is confirmation. I need to go hunting!» The next morning, I woke up at 3:08, and I went, «All right! What’s up?» I’ve had these things happen before, and I just simply ask Him a question, and He speaks. But this time, He was silent. He was silent. Several days later, I’m home in my office. I remember asking Him if I should write, and He said, «Isaiah 30:8.» And I have just filled my calendar and there is no time to write!
Why does He speak in mystery? Because then you’ll linger longer in His presence. Why does He speak in mystery? Because He’s wanting you to engage in dialogue: What did you mean by this? What do you want with me? Because of this, He’s wanting the exchange, and He’s wanting the sense of purpose embracing the journey. We are not robots commanded to fulfill a commission; we are people in a relational journey, and it requires exchange; it requires dialogue. Some things He’s made clear to me; other things remain a mystery, but they’ve lingered.
We had a situation—how many of you have heard the story of the Road Runner? Put your hands up. How many of you have never heard the story of the Road Runner or my story of the Road Runner? I’m not talking about the cartoon. How many of you have never… okay, all right? All right, I want you to know this is very strange for me. Just watch me squirm and enjoy it as much as you can!
Back at the beginning of the outpouring here— where the dining room is here, that’s where our prayer room was. We didn’t have this wing over here at all, and we’d go in there, the dining area. We’d pray before services, and I remember one Sunday night, I would like to get there. Service starts at, uh, prayer meeting starts at 5, but I like to get there a little early. I got there, I think, about 20 to 5 or something and wanted to pray. So I was walking through, praying. It has glass doors and glass windows—kind of a wall of glass windows—and a Road Runner came up to the window with a big ol' lizard in its mouth and was just dancing up against the glass. It hit the glass and came back, hit the glass—and I’m standing like this far away. I’ve never seen a Road Runner in my life!
Those of you from parts of the country find that normal! I’ve seen them since being in Arizona and some of these places down in Texas and Dallas. I saw some, but I’m standing this far away; he’s jumping towards the glass, he’s got a lizard in his mouth, and I’m thinking, «This is too weird to not be prophetic!» This is so strange! I hunt; I spend a lot of time outdoors. I hunt, I fish; I’m in this country, I’ve never seen one, I’ve never heard of one, seen one, and there’s a Road Runner in Reading! It’s not a cartoon!
I look at him; eventually, he goes away. Then other people start coming to the prayer meeting, so we’re walking around praying, and I’m walking around, and Don Mayer walks in. He goes, «Oh, the Road Runner’s back!» I look over and there he is again! I said, «What do you mean back?» He said, «He was here last week.» I went, «He came? He came to the prayer meeting?» «Yeah, he was here last week.» You’re kidding! «He came to the prayer meeting last week?» «Yep, came to the prayer meeting.» All right!
So, I could hardly wait till the next week, same thing. He showed up again! He didn’t come to any of my sermons, but he came to the prayer meeting. He would almost always have a big lizard in his mouth or a big Nightcrawler or something, and he would dance at the window trying to get in. So I would call all my prophetic friends and say, «You know, I don’t want to spread this; I don’t want any… people already think we’re weird! They accuse me of all kinds of things, talking to the dead—who knows what else, which I don’t do? We’ve got this Road Runner that’s been coming to our prayer meetings.» They would give me stories about Road Runners and stuff, but nothing ever clicked.
Finally, I found that Road Runners are one of the only animals that will kill a rattlesnake. I thought, «All right, you’re now my best friend, because I’m not a real fan of snakes, especially the kind that can kill you. We don’t get along.» A Road Runner will actually dance around the snake; when it strikes, it will move out of the way, use its peck to hit the back of its head, and kill it. Then it will walk around for days with this long snake out of its mouth until it just slowly digests the snake. I thought, «Well, it’s weird, but it works for me!» So I thought, «Snake is devil; you know, Road Runner is good.»
Then I found out that it’s related to the eagle. Who knew that? We started having our intercessors praying into it and doing research for me, so they would quietly send me emails with information. This went on for months, and Banning came to me one day and said, «Bill, last night at the youth pre-service prayer, the Road Runner came.» He would come to their prayer meeting—he added their prayer meeting to his schedule as well! I thought this is so strange!
I kept asking God, «What are you trying to say?» Because he always tried again; he could never get in. «What are you trying to say?» I had all kinds of interpretations, but none of them satisfied, to be honest with you. After this went on for a while, we started building the prayer house over here. If you’ve ever seen out of one of the windows looking east, there’s a rock that, if you look at it from a certain angle, it almost looks like the beak of an eagle, and while they were building, the Road Runner would go over there and watch them build the prayer house.
I’m just reporting; I’m not making this stuff up; I’m not embellishing. He would show; he would stand there and watch them build the prayer house. This went on for quite a while, and he almost became like a mascot, you know? One day, one of our janitors came to me crying, just really broken. He said, «Bill!» I said, «What’s up?» He said, «I killed the Road Runner!» I said, «What?» He said, «This is what happened! I was upstairs; the Road Runner got in; he was in the building, and he was upstairs cleaning the upstairs room up there. He said, 'The Road Runner was there, and I turned on worship music, sat in the middle of the floor.' The Road Runner would come right in front of him, and they would worship together.»
I don’t know; I’m not saying—I’m not saying he took his wings. I’m not saying that. Is this story weird? It is, so don’t repeat this, because you won’t be accurate—just don’t. He honestly came right in front of the guy, and they’d worship for a while, then he’d start feeling bad about not working, so he’d get up and vacuum some more. Then he’d just be curious; he’d wonder if he’d do it again. He’d turn the music on, sit in the middle of the floor, the Road Runner would come and sit right in front of him and worship some more. Strange!
He said, «I needed to clean the rest of the building, so I went down the hallway.» The Road Runner followed—came down the stairs. The Road Runner came down the stairs, came down this hallway out here—this wide hallway—and somebody was in a classroom and opened the classroom door behind them. It spooked the Road Runner; he flew to the end of the hallway into the plate glass window and died. Now, that can’t be the will of God! That’s what I figured.
So he told me, and I said, «Where’d you put him?» He said, «I’ll show you; he’s out back.» I said, «Well, you know, let’s go raise him from the dead, because this can’t possibly be the will of God! Right? There’s no dead Road Runner in heaven!» It was a weird experience. I know what anointing and presence is, and I would have all this confidence as we walked towards him. I actually experimented: I would get about eight feet away, and it would lift—it was off me that would lift. I prayed anyway, because I don’t want to just reduce things to what I discern. I know that I see in part. So I put my two fingers on his head and spoke life the best I knew how, and nothing happened. I went to my office and went, «You’ve been trying to talk to us for months, and I still don’t get it! What’s up with this?»
He spoke to me. He said, «What I am bringing into the house has to have a way of being released from the house or it will die in the house. What I am bringing into the house, that which God is pouring out upon us, has to be taken out of the house to people, or it will be inbred and die in the house.» He talks in strange ways, but He had my attention for six months because there was a bird that would show up, and it just confused me. But He enjoyed the dialogue. He doesn’t mind confusing you if you’ll come to Him with questions.
See, the Scripture says in Proverbs 25:2, «It’s the glory of God to conceal a matter, but it’s the glory of kings to search out a matter.» Do you understand that you are, according to both Peter and the Book of Revelation, a royal priesthood? You are royalty! Our royalty is never more clearly seen than when we know we have permission to ask for the mysteries, to ask for the secrets, to ask for the hidden things. He has hidden them for us, not from us.
So, everything I was going to talk about just got dumped. I’m just going to invite you to be a hearer of God in new ways. He talks uniquely. He talks—sometimes, I see this happen a lot now—unusual coincidences. There are times where I’ll call out a disease, and I’ll see three or four of them sitting right together. That tells me they’re going to be healed, because it’s an unusual coincidence. Learn to recognize the unique things that He speaks through!
He speaks through riddles, unusual coincidences, strange experiences—a burning bush. He turned aside, and then He heard and got clarity. The Lord puts these things all through our lives. It doesn’t mean every leaf on the ground has a prophetic message, but if you see the same unique thing happening over and over again, just ask the question, «Are You trying to talk to me?»
I’ll mention one more thing, and then we’ll pray together, and we’ll end this. We’ve been here for three or four days already, so some people who think everything is prophetic make me nervous! Because they just get weird! I mean, somebody’s holding a broom, and it’s prophetic. Somebody drives a Chevy, and it’s prophetic, and it just hurts my brain! I don’t want to think that much—just leave me alone! I want to drive to the store without interpreting the road I’m on!
So I’m about to step into their world; that’s my disclaimer. There are times when the Lord just puts something in front of me over and over and over again, and I tend to be a little bit on the slow side. I just had one of those situations in October of 2003. I have it written in one of my journals. This will sound rather simple to you, but for an extended period of time, I constantly ran into the number 555. It’d be an address, it would be a license plate, it would be a room number of a hotel—just always something. It’s just, for a period of time, day after day after day. Finally, I met this international healing conference in Minneapolis, and I go to bed—well, I always go to bed late in those things and hopefully get a chance to sleep a little longer in the morning. I wake up, and I look at the clock, and it’s 5:55! Thankfully, Benny stayed home on that trip, so I could be out loud and not wake her!
So I woke up, I looked at the clock, it’s 5:55, and I said out loud, «What are you trying to tell me?» It’s a hard experience to explain, but it was as though I was instantly asleep, and He spoke audibly. I don’t know how that works; I just know what happened. He said, «The anointing for the day of the cancellation of debt is upon you!» Then I woke up! The anointing for the day—was as clear as my voice—the anointing for the day of the cancellation of debt is upon you!
I know that whenever anyone talks about strange things, like different ways of hearing from God, it gives the weirdest people among us permission to get weirder. I have to take that risk because it also gives some people that would never stop and ask the question, «What does this mean?» I’ll take the risk because you may have Him speak audibly, you may have Him open an opportunity, you may have Him give you faith for something. There are times when I know what I’m supposed to do because I’m looking at three options, and I look at one of the options, and out of nowhere I believe God—I have faith for this! Faith is a gift from God; it’s the product of His hand.
I’m convinced there were times where Jesus knew what the Father was doing because He saw a faith for something. He looked at the Syrophoenician woman, and He saw an unusual dimension of faith that He’d never seen even among all the Jews. When He saw it, He knew that was His assignment; that’s what the Father’s doing.
I want to be good enough in my perception that I can see faith in somebody else’s eyes. I don’t mean what they say, because we know enough to say the right thing. A lady came up to me years ago; she said, «Tonight’s my night!» She was hooked up to some kind of a pump that pumps directly into her heart. I forget how it’s been so long, but I think it was she could go seven minutes without medication, and then she would die— it literally kept her alive! And she walked up to me, and she said, «I believe that tonight’s my night!» I could feel faith on her so strong that it was visible. I actually did this; I was a little embarrassed afterward; I stepped back and looked at her head to toe and toe to head. The reason is I wanted every cell of my being to never forget what I was now seeing because I was seeing something I had never witnessed before. That was faith on her was tangible!
I walked up and prayed for her; she went on the ground, she was there for 20 minutes or so. When she got up, I talked to her and said, «What’s happening?» She said, «There’s something to do with my heart and the lungs.» She said, «There’s this heat in my chest and in my lungs.» As she walked away, I said, «Your faith got you that one!» She came back the next night. Every morning at 7:00, she would change the bag of medication that had an electrical pump that would pump into her heart, and she’d change the bag. The Lord spoke to her and said, «You don’t need that anymore!» You know you’ve got just a few minutes to find out if you heard from God. I mean, it’s either I’m healed or, oops, I’m here a little early! So she came that Sunday night, and she was there. I said, «How are you?» She said, «I took off the bag of medication. I haven’t had it all day! I’m totally—I brought her up and had her give testimony to everyone!»
You learn to see, to feel, and to perceive. I don’t consider myself a very good seer at all; I hear better than I see, but I’m learning, I’m facing the right direction! I mean, I may need the remedial reading kind of vision, but I’m good! Just do whatever you need to do to help me see, but that’s the journey we’re on, and I want to invite you into another level of hearing and seeing because He’s invited us to do what the Father’s doing and to say what the Father is saying.
Why don’t you stand? That was weird, but it was good! That was fun! I love hearing the stories of people who hear from God differently, like the story I told you about Charles Price—he felt the Holy Spirit coming across his shoulders. I took a photo of the story on my iPad, put it in my file, because I want to come back to that. I want to recognize how others perceive Him. So fire across the shoulders, I’m ready! A thundering voice is easy: «Now go and write!» There’s not much follow-up conversation; you just go and write! But when He says, «There’s another Road Runner; he’s got something in his mouth.» «I’m bringing a harvest into the house that you have to be ready to release to impact the city. Or whatever you gather will die.» He spoke once; it took six months of exchange to find out what He was saying.
How many of you are ready for that? Let’s put your hands out, and let’s pray. The bottom line, Father, is we just love Your voice. We love Your will. Everything about Your will is overwhelmingly wonderful—overwhelmingly wonderful! You’ve declared of Yourself that You only do wondrous things! It’s all You’ve ever done—wondrous things! We’re so deeply impacted by the wondrous things, and we want to be more connected to what You’re saying and what You’re doing.
I ask that You’d open the eyes of our heart to see in ways we’ve never seen. Open our ears to hear in ways we’ve never heard, that we would perceive more of Your heartbeat in every situation around us. Help us to be more courageous in hearing from You than we are fearful of being wrong. Help us to be more courageous in responding to You than we are afraid of being wrong. Help us to demonstrate Your kindness, Your wonder, Your beauty, Your peace, Your joy, Your love, and Your spirit of breakthrough to person after person around us. I ask for all of this that Jesus would be exalted.
Now here’s what I want you to do. I want you to take just maybe two minutes, and I want you to pray for yourself for the next 30-day period. If you know you’re going to a city, you’re going to be with family, or you’re going to be at work—whatever it might be—recall it to mind, bring it before the Lord and just say, «God, I want You to speak to me here. I want You to prepare me for this.» I’ll be at work this week; I would like to be a fountain of life to people around me. I’m going to be with relatives that are difficult to get along with. Lord, I’d like to come to them with compassion I’ve never had before! Just put it on your lips! Pray it out loud! You don’t have to be loud, but pray it out; have the courage to pray out loud. Then we will open up the front here and in our own homes, Lord—expand our capacity! Expand our capacity!
In fact, put your hand on your head again. I know we already did it once, but God, release the dreams! Teach us with the dreams! You know why He gives us strange dreams? So we’ll stop and have dialogue. He wants us just to draw near with our stuff. So, Lord, I pray for that. I pray that You would—you would speak to us in the night—in the night—in the night so that we can draw near yet again to find Your heart in what You’ve spoken to us. I ask all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen!